Crash In Calaveras County Kills Mother

Gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, also known as gross DUI manslaughter, has a necessarily complicated legal definition. This is because it is very similar to a murder charge, but is considered less serious because there was no intention to kill. The law has to be very specific to differentiate between just bad luck. For a DUI to become gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, the four following conditions must be met: the suspect caused the death of someone, there was no malice aforethought, the suspect was driving, and the suspect was intoxicated. Additionally, one of the following must also be true: the suspect broke another traffic law (other than DUI), or the suspect did something that wasn’t technically illegal but knew would be dangerous.

The accident happened at about 8:30 p.m. on Sunday, December 23rd in Burson on Pettinger Road just north of Messing Road.

26-year-old Donald Jackson of Wallace was driving a 1996 Chevrolet Silverado northbound. He was driving behind 22-year-old Dusty Jackson of Valley Springs, who was driving a 2002 Chevrolet Silverado. Donald Jackson crossed over the double yellow lines to pass the other truck.

He crashed head-on into 27-year-old Chelsea Lund, who was driving a 2015 Chevrolet Cruze. He then collided with the other truck.

Donald Jackson suffered from non-life-threatening injuries and was taken to Mercy San Juan Medical Center.

Lund suffered from fatal injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene. Her passengers, 27-year-old Dylan Burch and her 8-year-old son Kaiden, were both airlifted to the hospital.

Both of the Jacksons were arrested for DUI. Donald was additionally charged with gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated.